Distributed Learning and Students with Learning Disabilities Markku Pehkonen
Assignment 2 Part B Thompson Rivers University
Distributed Learning and Students with Learning Disabilities
Over the past 10 years, I have worked with many students diagnosed with a learning disability.
Some learning disabilities are in core subjects such as math or reading or writing while other learning disabilities are behavioural and can interfere with successful learning. I was interested in how distributed learning plays a role when it comes to students with learning disabilities. Online learning and distance education can be very self directed, with help from teacher advisors or other students taking the course but I was curious how a student with a learning disability would feel taking a distributed learning course? For the remainder of the overview I will use LD instead of learning disability.
‘The term “disability” is very broad, and can include persons with sensory impairments (blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing), learning disabilities, motor functioning problems, or
neurological impairments.’ (Hirtz, S. 2008). Learning must be accessible to all students. If a resource is inaccessible to a student with an LD, then an alternative means must be made accessible. ‘A failure to provide information in an accessible manner could be considered discrimination if no reasonable attempt is made to accommodate the disabled person.’ (Hirtz, S. 2008). This made me think about distributed learning and technology. Mary Wilson, the instructor for this course, defined distributed learning as ‘(w)e read a book and talk about it with someone, enhancing our understanding of what we read (one location of learning) through conversation (another). We practice math we learned in a class (a location of learning) at home (another).’ We live in a world where technology is accessible to a clear majority of our population. Regardless of who you are, where you live or if you have an LD. So, wouldn’t
distributed learning be the best learning for a student with an LD? Where they can use technology to make the learning accessible to them?
The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation was considering if distributed learning is an effective way a student with an LD can learn. ‘(S)tudents who succeed in distributed learning have three things in common: they have self-discipline, good reading skills, and adult support. Not many students with identified special needs have all three.’ (Kuehn, L. 2008). I disagree with Kuehn and believe that many students with an LD have all three qualities. A student with a reading LD will struggle with a distributed learning course, if the readings are not accessible in another way. Simply creating audio files of the readings would be a great way to start. And a student with an LD in reading could absolutely have self- discipline and adult support. If we can continue to utilize the technology we are creating to help
students with LDs, such as creating an audio file for a reading, or speech to text word documents, or the use of online math tutorials such as Khan Academy, then distributed learning could continue to become the most successful way for students with an LD to learn.
Sometimes it is very difficult for students with an LD to have success in a ‘regular’ classroom.
My Grade 9 math class is usually around 30 – 35 students and there is an educational assistant helping approximately 2 – 3 hours every week. I imagine that it could be extremely difficult for a student with an LD in math to learn in this format. The teacher simply cannot work one-on-one with everyone and at the junior high level, the noise level can get quite high at times. I can see this student working at his/her own pace online, using tutorials, talking to other students and the instructor in a quiet, online
environment, and learning the content much more effectively than in a face-to-face classroom. There is however, one major factor adding to this success. The student must have self-discipline.
Bates considers Universal Design for Learning, or UDL courses which ‘refers to the deliberate design of instruction to meet the needs of a diverse mix of learners. Universally designed courses attempt to meet all learners’ needs by incorporating multiple means of imparting information and flexible methods of assessing learning.’ (Bates, T. 2015). This type of learning was new to me and I wanted to look further into UDL courses. The courses are designed to really personalize the learning for the student. Personalization has become quite popular in my school board as well where not every student can have success memorizing scientific terms but can demonstrate their understanding of the terminology by making a video or model of the digestive system for example. Students are given the opportunity to create their own assessments instead of the teacher designing and implementing the same assessment to all the students. I believe these types of courses would absolutely benefit students with an LD and perhaps distributed learning courses could take on this framework?
One troubling fact I came across from the National Center for Learning Disabilities was ‘(o)nly 17 percent of young adults with LD received accommodations and supports in postsecondary education because of their disability, compared to 94 percent in high school.’ (Wendorf, J. 2014). This makes me think that post secondary institutions must completely change the way they are running their courses and making them accessible to all students. I believe that distributed learning and possibly UDL courses or personalizing the learning can help create this shift. Currently, most post secondary courses include
exams or essays or lab reports as the only ways to assess. Distributed learning could allow for students to create their own assessments with the help of an instructor and classmates.
Assessments however, must still be academic and demonstrate the outcomes that are required.
Sometimes as a teacher, I feel I am allowing the students too much freedom where their projects do not cover the outcomes. Students with an LD must be allowed to demonstrate their understanding and gain accessibility to resources in whatever method works for them however, if the tasks do not show
comprehension of the outcomes, then the student cannot gain credit for the work. At times I feel some students take advantage of the system and instead of writing a math test, they will take home some math questions and bring them in but this does not demonstrate their understanding so another task must be completed.
Distributed learning and online learning can seem like a roadblock to a student with an LD. This mindset however, can completely shift where these types of courses could be more beneficial to a student with an LD. Technology is continuing to evolve to allow for virtually limitless resources and access to these resources. ‘Paula Schmidt, a district PAC chair, said we have to get on with making online education work because we have not just a generation of kids immersed in online experience, but also parents of young students who are computer savvy.’ (Kuehn, L. 2008). Distributed learning courses are allowing for a collaborative and cooperative approach as opposed to an instructor based approach in a traditional classroom setting. There are many factors, in my opinion, which make a distributed
learning course much more suitable for a student with a learning disability and hopefully post secondary
institutions and all learning environments will continue to work to make their courses accessible and allow accommodations and support for all students.
References
Bates, Tony. (2015). Students as a Criterion for Media Selection in Online Learning British Columbia: Contact North
Hirtz, Sandy. (2008). Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around the Globe British Columbia: BCcampus and Commonwealth of Learning
Kuehn, Larry. (2008). Education & Technology: Distributed Learning: Solutions or new problems?
British Columbia: Teacher Newsmagazine British Columbia Teachers’ Federation
Wendorf, James H. (2014). The State of Learning Disabilities: Facts, Trends and Emerging Issues Third Edition 2014 New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities
